Rookie PFF Grades

[t96]

Early returns are great and exciting but also worth noting that Gettleman had a few drafts that looked incredible early on and wound up mostly sucking (2014 mainly). Also PFF; grain of salt, etc. 

 

I'm completely sold on Tet being a stud, knocked a high pick out of the park like we needed to and always should.

Nearly sold on Scourton.

Not sold on Princely but he had flashes.

Not sold on Etienne as more than a 3rd stringer and special teamer, but that's not terrible for his draft position.

Big fan of Ransom and think he'll be a starter. 

Cam Jackson : IDK, I see limited upside but we didn't see much of him

Evans was a nice find for draft position and he had a great rookie year for a late round rookie TE with plenty of veteran competition. Not sure about his upside though, seems like best case is a long term #2/3 TE, which isn't bad.

Jimmy Horn, personally I didn't see a damn thing from him that impressed me all year. And he got a lot of opportunities. Pulling for the kid, but not convinced he's an NFLer.

 

UDFA: Fitzgerald was an amazing find

[Khyber53]

Got to give some credit to the coaching staff on these. You can grab top talents but without good coaching, they just fizzle out. We've seen that a lot around here.

 

[Jay Roosevelt]

50 minutes ago, t96 said:

Early returns are great and exciting but also worth noting that Gettleman had a few drafts that looked incredible early on and wound up mostly sucking (2014 mainly). Also PFF; grain of salt, etc. 

 

I'm completely sold on Tet being a stud, knocked a high pick out of the park like we needed to and always should.

Nearly sold on Scourton.

Not sold on Princely but he had flashes.

Not sold on Etienne as more than a 3rd stringer and special teamer, but that's not terrible for his draft position.

Big fan of Ransom and think he'll be a starter. 

Cam Jackson : IDK, I see limited upside but we didn't see much of him

Evans was a nice find for draft position and he had a great rookie year for a late round rookie TE with plenty of veteran competition. Not sure about his upside though, seems like best case is a long term #2/3 TE, which isn't bad.

Jimmy Horn, personally I didn't see a damn thing from him that impressed me all year. And he got a lot of opportunities. Pulling for the kid, but not convinced he's an NFLer.

 

UDFA: Fitzgerald was an amazing find

This is pretty much 100% my thoughts as well.

[strato]

1 hour ago, Khyber53 said:

Got to give some credit to the coaching staff on these. You can grab top talents but without good coaching, they just fizzle out. We've seen that a lot around here.

 

No doubt. The position coaches influence stuff big time. OC and DC can pass down instructions but those guys implement. They are the every day ‘hands on’ guys. 
 

Some positions definitely get a gold star, but we need to fix this poor tackling problem. If I am Evero I am putting pressure on my staff to correct that poo.  

[SCMunnerlyn1]

13 hours ago, Castavar said:

All my feelings towards Dan hinges on whether they extend Bryce or not

Im fine extending him. I just hope hes fine with getting a lower tiered contract so if someone outplays him you have a good priced backup.

[h0llywood]

1 hour ago, t96 said:

Early returns are great and exciting but also worth noting that Gettleman had a few drafts that looked incredible early on and wound up mostly sucking (2014 mainly). Also PFF; grain of salt, etc. 

 

I'm completely sold on Tet being a stud, knocked a high pick out of the park like we needed to and always should.

Nearly sold on Scourton.

Not sold on Princely but he had flashes.

Not sold on Etienne as more than a 3rd stringer and special teamer, but that's not terrible for his draft position.

Big fan of Ransom and think he'll be a starter. 

Cam Jackson : IDK, I see limited upside but we didn't see much of him

Evans was a nice find for draft position and he had a great rookie year for a late round rookie TE with plenty of veteran competition. Not sure about his upside though, seems like best case is a long term #2/3 TE, which isn't bad.

Jimmy Horn, personally I didn't see a damn thing from him that impressed me all year. And he got a lot of opportunities. Pulling for the kid, but not convinced he's an NFLer.

 

UDFA: Fitzgerald was an amazing find

Pretty spot on. The only thing that I may add is that I think Scourton is our future. I think next season with Wonnum gone he makes the leap and gets 9-10 sacks.

[h0llywood]

Using a different metric (WAR), here's from Sports Illustrated:

"WAR is a difficult stat to analyze, but it essentially means how many wins a player added to their team. So without McMillan, the Panthers lose half a game more, and likely do not make the playoffs. It's most known in baseball, but with there being almost 10 times the games in the MLB, the numbers make a lot more sense.

Essentially, if McMillan were in the MLB, that WAR would've translated to 4.8 WAR, which makes him equivalent to George Springer and Mookie Betts, two very good baseball players."

https://www.si.com/nfl/panthers/onsi/news/how-carolina-panthers-rookie-performed-2025

[t96]

40 minutes ago, h0llywood said:

Pretty spot on. The only thing that I may add is that I think Scourton is our future. I think next season with Wonnum gone he makes the leap and gets 9-10 sacks.

Yeah I'm super excited about Scourton. I'm just holding back my excitement a bit as I was also incredibly excited about Kony Ealy and that came back to bite me. Hence why I'm "nearly sold" but not "completely sold."

[strato]

42 minutes ago, SCMunnerlyn1 said:

Im fine extending him. I just hope hes fine with getting a lower tiered contract so if someone outplays him you have a good priced backup.

Except, there is no starter tier money that goes that low, that it qualifies as a good price on a backup. The guys with the big deals probably make 8-12 times or maybe even more than what their backups make.

33 mil or whatever per year, that is still multiples of what the highest paid backups make.  4-8 million is common with a couple of higher exceptions out there.  

Okay I looked. The highest guys I see that are backups are topping out at around 7 mil. Lots are down in the 4 range. 
 

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/rankings/player/_/year/2026/position/qb/sort/contract_average

People don’t think Bryce would accept  30-33 million per year extension. So I guess even the 5th year option price of 26.5 is way too low. That’s like 6 times what Dalton s getting. 4mil. Several guys are right there with him. 

26 minutes ago, h0llywood said:

Using a different metric (WAR), here's from Sports Illustrated:

"WAR is a difficult stat to analyze, but it essentially means how many wins a player added to their team. So without McMillan, the Panthers lose half a game more, and likely do not make the playoffs. It's most known in baseball, but with there being almost 10 times the games in the MLB, the numbers make a lot more sense.

Essentially, if McMillan were in the MLB, that WAR would've translated to 4.8 WAR, which makes him equivalent to George Springer and Mookie Betts, two very good baseball players."

https://www.si.com/nfl/panthers/onsi/news/how-carolina-panthers-rookie-performed-2025

Gotta think his WAR would be higher in a more productive passing offense. 

[t96]

2 hours ago, Khyber53 said:

Got to give some credit to the coaching staff on these. You can grab top talents but without good coaching, they just fizzle out. We've seen that a lot around here.

 

Yeah nobody ever really knows how much of a player ultimately being a success is scouting vs development/coaching. It's always a mix and you need both, and both need to be aligned as players you scout could fit in one coach's system but not fit in others. That's why you need coaching staff and front office to be in lock step. 

[h0llywood]

3 minutes ago, t96 said:

Yeah I'm super excited about Scourton. I'm just holding back my excitement a bit as I was also incredibly excited about Kony Ealy and that came back to bite me. Hence why I'm "nearly sold" but not "completely sold."

LOL I haven't heard that name in a long time!

[strato]

3 minutes ago, t96 said:

Yeah I'm super excited about Scourton. I'm just holding back my excitement a bit as I was also incredibly excited about Kony Ealy and that came back to bite me. Hence why I'm "nearly sold" but not "completely sold."

I don’t remember Ealy’s age but Scourton is very young. Which is really encouraging. So much headroom left before he really matures and tops out. Potentially. 

[ColumbusCounty]

47 minutes ago, h0llywood said:

Essentially, if McMillan were in the MLB, that WAR would've translated to 4.8 WAR, which makes him equivalent to George Springer and Mookie Betts, two very good baseball players."

https://www.si.com/nfl/panthers/onsi/news/how-carolina-panthers-rookie-performed-2025

"The one other noteworthy thing PFF analyst Mark Chichester pointed out was that Corey Thornton, in limited action, was third among rookie cornerbacks with a 68.6 PFF grade."

I need to see more of this guy. From what I've seen so far he could end up taking the nickel spot ahead of CSW. 

[Khyber53]

1 hour ago, strato said:

No doubt. The position coaches influence stuff big time. OC and DC can pass down instructions but those guys implement. They are the every day ‘hands on’ guys. 
 

Some positions definitely get a gold star, but we need to fix this poor tackling problem. If I am Evero I am putting pressure on my staff to correct that poo.  

I have been just gobsmacked by how bad tackling has become on this team, and honestly, league-wide.

Everyone wants that Sports Center kill shot shoulder block or the Peanut punch attempt.

Just give me Luke, TD or Shaq getting a solid tackle and bringing the ball carrier down right that moment.

This is why you need linebackers leading the defense and setting the tone.